the moving on chronicle
by finish line
Summary: Sasu/Saku. Moving on requires forgetting someone you know you cannot forget despite all the pains and sacrifices you have gone through for him. And so he helps her. "Stop assuming." \How to move on Anthology\
1. apple

**the moving on chronicle  
**_Tell yourself that he's not worth it. He's not worth your tears.  
Tell yourself that, really, he's not worth all the pain. You deserve better.  
After the mantra of hypocrisy, tell yourself you love him and later find out that you can't.  
Then you'll laugh because you'll realize—"I finally moved on."  
You just hope it's as easy as that._

∞ **apple **∞

"Moving on is like disposing an apple," says Haruno Sakura to her blonde best friend. She leans against the backrest of the bench she and Yamanaka Ino sit on and plays with the bright red apple that her hands grasp. "You take a single bite. A few minutes later, you look down and see it bruising. You'll want to throw it, but you know what?"

Ino's tear-stricken face finally looks up at her. She giggles at the pink-haired girl's awkward analogy.

"What?"

Sakura smiles as she looks down at the fruit. "Even after having thrown it, it's still there. Maybe not in your hands, but you know it still exists."

"So it's like that?" Sakura's blonde friend asks. They look ahead at the lamppost that stands across from them. "I may have wanted to dispose of my feelings for him because he bruises it? But even after throwing it—even if I try to . . . to let go of it—it will still be existing? How do I move on, Sakura? It hurts."

"It's simple," answers Sakura. "You eat the apple. You chew it down to pieces, swallow it. Then you'll realize, in only a matter of minutes, that it's gone. It's all in the past."

Ino does not speak.

"And I know it's difficult, but you won't move on unless you haven't tasted what _your_ feelings taste like." Sakura laughs. "When it's too rotten to gobble it down, go on, throw the rotting apple. It will take so long a time, but there will be others who would consume it."

Ino raises an eyebrow. "Others?"

"_Pests_."

Then Sakura laughs, but laughs more when she realizes that her best friend finally smiles for the first time that day.

"Who taught you that?" Ino questions, turning to her.

She smiles at the blonde. "Sasuke."

The smile Ino wears disappears into a thin line and she stares at Sakura. "Sak—"

Sakura laughs. "Don't worry, I'm fine." She winks. "I've eaten my apple."

**author's note: **Kidnap My Heart shall be updated this weekend. :) Review?


	2. assume

**the moving on chronicle  
**_"I chose to stay with him for all the things that he had done right,  
and not to leave him for the one thing that he had done wrong."  
Mr. Bitter Gourd says it's called being stupid.  
Ms. Pumpkin says it's called being stupidly in love.  
You say you can't move on from just one line that makes you stupid._

∞ **assume **∞

Sakura huffs and feels tears prickling around her eyes again. "So that's it? _You_'re telling me to _move on_? _You_? _Seriously_?"

She watches as Sasuke sighs in frustration and runs his hand along his black hair. The street is silent as the night drones on, sinking the area into the midnight. Sakura makes out Sasuke's face through what little light the lamppost behind him provides them.

Sasuke does not reply.

Sakura continues, "You're seriously telling me to freaking _move_ _on_? From you?"

When Sasuke does not respond, the tears spill. "Oh, my god. You're so stupid."

"Who's the best person to help you move on?" asks Sasuke, and Sakura grows annoyed all over again.

"I don't know!" she screams into the silent street. "I don't fucking care, all right? What I don't understand is that why _you_ have to tell it straight in my face!"

"Because I can help you best," Sasuke says, gripping her shoulders tightly. Sakura feels her heart skip a beat as he glares at her. "If I tell you to help yourself to get over me—_us_—you _can't_. It's not that you _won't_, but you _can't_. So let me help you."

"How then?" demands Sakura, challenging the man. "Tell me! Tell me the first step I have to do to move on from _you_. Besides, you're so smart you'll know what."

It aches when he looks at her head on, and glares at her. In a heartbeat, he says, "Stop assuming."

"What?"

"Stop assuming that everything I do for you from now on has something to do with me trying to get back together," continues Sasuke. He moves closer to the pink-haired girl. "Stop assuming that we still have a chance when I'm telling you now that we _don't_."

Sakura does not reply. Instead, she feels a new set of tears sting her eyes.

"The first step of moving on is to stop assuming," Sasuke tells her, and his voice grows considerably soft. "Because—"

**ass-u-me**

"—assuming is simply making an _ass_ out of _you_ and _me_."


End file.
